The Communist Manifesto

The Communist Manifesto was originally published in the German language and was translated into French, English, Italian, Polish, and Russian in Marx' time. Prefaces to seven later editions are included with this text and were written by Marx and Engels jointly (or by Engels after the death of Marx in 1883), either to restore the original thought lost in poor translations or to put the work in context for modern readers by reviewing assumptions contained in the original text which had proved politically or historically false in the intervening years.

This section is the heart of The Communist Manifesto, and the first sentence is the key to the entire work: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" (p. 57). Whether free or slave, lord or serf, trades

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urrently exists, yet its lack of centralization is the single largest factor inhibiting its struggle with the bourgeois. Each time the proletariat "rises up," it does so stronger than before, and commands more attention. Each such contest expands the union (common bond) among the various workers. Local struggles must eventually unite into a national struggle, in Marx' view, and the successes of the bourgeoisie--by expanding the infrastructure necessary for continued growth--will eventually provide the means necessary for their overthrow. The ultimate basis for the division between bourgeois and proletariat centers on the ownership of property. Capitalists own factories or supply housing, food, and clothing. Because they have "nothing of their own to secure and to fortify," the proletariat will only "become masters of the productive forces of society (by destroying) all previous securities for, and insurances of, individual property" (p. 76). The proletariat must realize that with the progress of industry the progress of the working-class has not happened. The basic flaw of the bourgeoisie has been the failure to feed the worker while being fed by him: "Society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other words, it
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Approximate Word count = 2682
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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